Boca Grande Fire Department wins Florida Press award for public service project

Boca Grande Fire Department Chief C.W. Blosser, along with BGFD and Auxcomm staff, won second place at the Florida Press Association’s 2024 Weekly Newspaper Contest for a service project under the Community Service category. Staff of the Beacon traveled to Orlando on Thursday, July 26 for the Florida Press Awards where the Boca Beacon won a total of 15 awards in the weekly paper category. A full list of newspaper and magazine awards was published in last week’s Aug. 2 edition of the Beacon.

Auxcomm, which stands for Auxiliary Emergency Communications system, was founded by volunteers and the Boca Grande Fire Department, is a backup communications network in case of hurricanes or other infrastructure breakdowns. The system, which consists of simple two-way radios and an island-wide antennae system, is designed to be a user-friendly backup in the event of the failure of local internet, power and telephone systems. 

Photo by Anna